Sunday, February 25, 2007

Believe it or not...

I'm writing this post on my old Macintosh LC475, a 25MHz machine.

Unfortunately, the 68K version of iCab (the browser I'm using) doesn't render css well, and as such, most pages on Blogger are a bit jumbled. I had a tough time logging in, and had to do a little bit of cutting and pasting of URLs before Blogger would let me in. Maybe if I tried to log in via Google?

The editing page is a right mess... nothing is rendered properly, and I don't see the toolbar anywhere. So, I have absolutely NO idea how this is going to look on other systems.

But at least I can say I edited my blog, via Blogger's web interface, on my LC475.

I have experienced Web 2.0 on a 25MHz computer from 1993.

Civic-mindedness part three: The Pot and The Kettle

A bad case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Two minutes after my last post, I started reading some of my older posts. Sure enough, I got to my "No, it's MY Downtown" article.

The article (not my finest hour) was an almost militant swipe at suburbanites. I derided all the people who complain about our downtown: the panhandlers, lack of free parking, lack of big box retail, and so on; telling them they weren't wanted downtown, to stay home and leave downtown to us, the people who enjoy and appreciate it.

Not exactly civic minded. Or even friendly.

So, in the interest of "making nice" and scrubbing off the residue of hypocracy, I've deleted it.
Won't happen again.

Civic-mindedness part two

*** This article was removed 03/11/07. I have to learn not to jump to conclusions or judge people before I've met them in person. ***

Thursday, February 15, 2007

On forums and Civic-mindedness

I did something yesterday I didn't think I'd ever do. I joined an online forum about Winnipeg.

At first glance, all I found was the kind of juvenile behaviour (arche/stereo)typical of online forums in general. People sniping at each other, flame wars, hyperdefensiveness over the slightest questioning or criticism of one's point of view, you know... that sort of thing.  The sort of thing I thought I left behind when I left the Usenet.

Well, I persevered. I read through a few more articles and posts, and it dawned on me... there are actual INTELLIGENT conversations and discussions going on, and most people DO seem to care about the subjects at hand.

I may have found my element. But what does it take to become more civic-minded?

...guess I'm gonna find out...

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Double heartbreak...

Ever get the feeling the universe has a sick sense of humour?

Today, the day after my beloved Nadia died, Low End Mac's "Mac of the Day" is the Powerbook G3 "Lombard".

Ain't that a kick in the nuts?!

And to make matters worse, it had to happen today, my 34th birthday...

*sigh*

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Death in service... Rest in Peace, Nadia.

Nadia, my dear, thank you for a wonderful year...

Nadia, my Macintosh Powerbook G3 "Lombard", died today after a year of faithful service. My first "modern" Powerbook, Nadia took over for my ailing Powerbook 5300 (aka Raven) as my mobile office and website maintenance machine.

Nadia was also the first Mac I had that was able to run OS X. In the three months I used OS X, I became enamoured... OS X is so easy to use, and it introduced me to the "modern" internet. I created my first blog using Nadia (first through Blogger's web interface, then through Ecto) and had fun using Shrook to catch all my favourite RSS feeds.

When I decided to buy a new MP3 player, I went with an iPod, because I knew it would work well with my Powerbook. It didn't disappoint! iTunes is so easy to use, it's unreal... seamless updating of my iPod.

Life was grand for the month after my iPod arrived... until today. At 7pm today, Nadia died. Victim of CPU failure.

She will be missed.

As will all the songs I imported from my CDs, my serial number for Ecto (which I forgot to write down), pictures from my digital camera, and a few web-related projects I was working on. Wish I'd bought that CDRW drive when I had the money...

Looks like I'm in the market for a new Powerbook. And an external drive enclosure, so I can salvage what I can from Nadia's hard drive.

I'm leaning towards buying the Lombard's successor, the Pismo... likely a 500MHz model. Why? Because I have three batteries for Nadia, and they'll work on a Pismo... not to mention a CD/DVDROM drive, spare PRAM battery, and a few other accessories, too...

That, and a Pismo is much more inexpensive than, say, a new Macbook.